The home and forei:m mail-packet service was, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, in the hands of the post-office authorities, but was removed to the Board of Admiralty, under whose control it remained till 1S60, when it was again restored to the post-office. Steam-vessels were first used for conveying the mail in 182] : and in 1833 mail contracts were introduced, the first being with the Mona Steam Company to run steamers from Liverpool to Douglas in the Isle of Nan. Of the home mail-packet contracts. the most important are those with the City of Dub lin Steam-Packet Company for conveying the Irish mails between Holyhead and Kingstown. The principal foreign contracts are for the In dian and Chinese mails, entered into with the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Com pany, the mails to North and South America, the West Indies, the Australian colonies, and the Cape.
In 190/ there were 22.189 post-offices in the United Kingdom besides 33.590 road and pillar letter-boxes. The total number of letters de livered during the year was 2,323,000,000, as against 1,097,000,000 in 1879. The total num ber of post cards, books, newspapers, and parcels delivered through the mails amounted to 1,400, 200,000. The number of money orders issued was 13,263,567, with an aggergate value of £39,374, 665. The number of 'postal orders' issued amounted to S5,390,029, with an aggregate value of £29,881,726. The total receipts of the post
office exclusive of the income from the telegraphic service was £13,995,470, while the expenditures were £9,064,903, leaving a balance of £3,930,567.
The postal service of the United Kingdom is now under the immediate control of the Post master-General assisted by the chief secretary of the post-office in London, a financial secre tary, and four other secretaries. There are also chief officers in Edinburgh and Dublin, with sec retarial and other departmental staffs. The Post master-General is a member of the Privy Council, and sometimes a Cabinet Minister. He is the only office• connected with the department who leaves office on a change of Ministry. The secretary is his responsible adviser. The receiver• and ac countant-general keeps account of the money received by each department, receiving remit tances from branch and provincial offices, and taking charge of the payment of all salaries, pensions, and items of current expenditure. The surveyors are the connecting link between the metropolitan and provincial officers, each post master. with some exceptions, being under the superintendence of the surveyor of his district. In 1900 the staff of ofice•s employed in the post office, including those engaged in telegraph work, was over 107,000.